With protests across the country fueled by police killings such as the ones in New York City and Ferguson, Mo., two groups often at odds — law enforcement officials and civil rights advocates — are beginning to see body cameras as a way to settle allegations of misconduct by officers.

In the wake of the civil unrest, President Barack Obama last week asked Congress for $263 million to fund a task force to improve police practices in the community and pay for body cameras.

Locally, several departments already were working to get them.

Allentown's 2015 budget, which had been in the works for months, was approved last week and outfits the city's more than 200-member police department with body cameras, making it the largest force in the region to use them. Allentown's chief said the community wants body cameras.

Six months ago in Richland Township, a suburban community surrounding Quakertown, the 14-member department began using body cameras.

"It gives us better information to take to court," Richland police Chief Richard J. Ficco said in outlining the reasons the department adopted use of the devices. "You can see the subject's demeanor and the way the officer reacted. When it's just a written report, so much is left up to the reader's interpretation."

Body cameras still have detractors on both sides, but momentum seems to be building for their widespread use.

Body cameras in action

Ficco was researching dashboard cameras for the Richland department when he went to a trade show and saw Taser Axon Flex body cameras, made by the same company that manufactures Taser stun guns.

The body cameras cost about $600 each — by comparison, dashboard cameras cost about $3,500 each.

Officers can wear the 3-inch devices on their collars or attach them to the side of their eyeglasses. The camera constantly buffers, which means when an officer switches it on, the recording includes 30 seconds of prior video footage, without audio.

Before issuing the body cameras, Ficco worked with a prosecutor from the Bucks County district attorney's office to write a policy on their use. The five-page directive spells out when officers are required to switch a camera on, when they can turn it off, and how long videos should be stored.

Recent changes to the Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act allow police to record anyone in public without permission, but Richland goes a step further and requires officers to notify citizens that their body cameras are rolling.

In a private home, Richland's policy requires officers to get the permission of everyone present when the cameras are turned on so they comply with state and federal privacy laws.

"When we hit that threshold we tell them, 'Hey, we have this activated, do you want me to turn it off?' My experience has been that people don't care. They called us, they want us to come in and deal with their problem. It's almost been a non-issue," said Detective Sgt. Raymond Aleman.

On a busy shift, each Richland officer can upload dozens of body cam videos. Although that sounds like a lot of extra work, Aleman noted that most videos are not reviewed, unless an officer needs to look at one while writing a report.

Richland stores videos related to traffic incidents for a maximum of 120 days, essentially the time allowed for a driver to appeal a ticket. Videos of interactions that could wind up as evidence in county court are saved a minimum of two years, Ficco said.

The department contracts with an outside firm, Evidence.com, to store the videos and protect them with multiple levels of encryption.

While detectives do have the ability to edit a copy of the video — to blur out a bystander's face, for example — before playing it in court, the original is never altered and is always available in case a defense attorney wants to subpoena it, Aleman said.

Richland police Sgt. Michael Kisthardt said the cameras took some getting used to, but now it's just part of his routine. He laughed when he recalled a recent burglary call in which his video recorded him talking to the homeowner's dog for several minutes after he entered the home, asking the animal if it was hungry.

"It just shows that it captures everything we do, good or embarrassing. It's real life," Kisthardt.

As Allentown gets ready to roll out body cameras, Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin said he does not plan to have any input on its policy. Martin said he trusted city police officials to handle the task.

Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald said in an email he is working on a policy and city officers won't be issued body cameras until all the details are hammered out.

"In the case of body-worn cameras, to protect all stakeholders … our folks will receive training and testing on the appropriate use of units prior to actual on-street implementation in areas like privacy rights, evidentiary and retention considerations, and officer safety benefits."

Roper, the attorney with ACLU of Pennsylvania, said she thinks getting the district attorney's advice would make Allentown's body camera policy stronger. Equally important, she said, is the community's input.

"That's the public they serve, and that's who's going to be on the other end of the camera," she said.

Fitzgerald said he will take public comment into consideration when creating the policy.

"The community has spoken, and we listened. Our local community groups have been so committed to seeing us move forward that some proposed raising money for us to purchase cameras for our bike officers," he said.

Cameras and court

Tod Burke, a professor of criminal justice at Radford University in Virginia and a former Maryland police officer, predicts the courts will soon see invasion-of-privacy lawsuits sparked by an increase in police body cameras.

Victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence may have second thoughts about talking to police if they fear being recorded, he said, and police unions may also revolt if law enforcement brass start using body camera tapes to nitpick officers' work.

"A police officer is in a fishbowl 24 hours a day," Burke said. "Who would want to be videotaped at their job all day? But we expect more from our police officers. I would say don't get into the job if you're not ready for that."

Burke also worries the cameras could lead to safety issues.

"If a police officer is worried about how they'll come off on camera, or what the media might see, they might not be giving their full attention to what's happening around them," he said. "And that could get them hurt or killed."

But, Burke said, the benefits of body cameras outweigh these concerns, though he urged police departments to proceed cautiously and not be swayed by the influx of federal grant money in the wake of the police killing of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, or of the police chokehold death of a black Staten Island man.

New York City police launched a pilot program to equip officers with body cameras Wednesday, just before a grand jury announced it wasn't bringing charges against the policeman who used the chokehold.

Although civil rights watchdogs have long been opposed to increased police oversight through video, many now see body cameras as a way to protect citizens from rogue police officers.

In a 2013 statement, ACLU senior policy analyst Jay Stanley said:

"Although we generally take a dim view of the proliferation of surveillance cameras in American life, police on body cameras are different because of their potential to serve as a check against the abuse of power by police officers. Historically, there was no documentary evidence of most encounters between police officers and the public, and due to the volatile nature of those encounters, this often resulted in radically divergent accounts of incidents.

"Cameras have the potential to be a win-win, helping protect the public against police misconduct, and at the same time helping protect police against false allegations of abuse."

Martin, the district attorney in Lehigh County, said video from body cameras will be useful in court, but he doesn't think it will be a game-changer.

"I see it as being beneficial in that it will provide photographic evidence of what occurs, which could protect police against claims of excessive force," he said. "Or it could help the claimant. In that regard, it could be a double-edged sword."

Allentown has fought its share of police brutality lawsuits, including claims based on incidents captured on video. In one recent case making its way through federal court, 28-year-old Florencio Vazquez Jr. accused police officers of beating him during an altercation July 26 at Sixth and Tilghman streets.

Vazquez claims officers used excessive force, leaving him with scrapes and bruises. Police say they were attempting to subdue him because they were concerned he was intoxicated to a degree that he was a danger to himself and others.

Although some of the incident was recorded by a streetlight surveillance camera, much of it took place behind a trash bin, out of view.

Mayor Ed Pawlowski said Allentown's body cameras, which will cost about $160,000, are expected to reduce the city's liability costs.

Studies also suggest that body cameras quell both police violence and public malingering.

Police officers in Rialto, Calif. have been wearing cameras since 2012. A Cambridge University study found that, during the first year the cameras were in use, complaints against police officers declined by 88 percent, and officer use of force reports dropped by 59 percent.

The researchers found that, in numerous cases, citizens decided not to file grievances after they were shown the video of their incident.

Ficco, Richland's chief, said he thinks the body cameras will vindicate accused officers more often than work against them.

"Whatever the cost to implement a body camera program, it's going to be far less than the cost of fighting a civil lawsuit. If you can get cameras, use them. They're only going to prove you right."

But Burke, the professor at Radford University in Virginia, cautioned that the body cameras are only one piece of what needs to be a comprehensive plan to improve community policing to avoid the civil unrest spawned by Ferguson and incidents where police used deadly force.

"Throwing money at an important issue like this is like placing a Band-Aid on a hemorrhage," Burke said. "What we need to have are solid policies in place, proper police training and community education."